Around 90 percent of workers at Fukushima nuclear power plant fled the crippled facility at the height of the 2011 meltdown, according to a previously undisclosed report that challenges the timeline of events surrounding the disaster.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In September 2014, Japanese
newspaper Asahi Shimbun issued an apology over a false report
after it admitted that its story was based on false leaks from a
Japanese government inquiry into Fukushima.

A copy of the document, consisting of more than 400 pages
obtained by the Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper said that four days after the plant was hit
by a tsunami, employees abandoned their posts at the plant,
fearing that the core of No. 2 reactor could go into meltdown,
contaminating the area.

Based on a number of government conducted interviews into the
matter, the report cites Masao Yoshida, Fukushima plant manager
at the time, who testified that 650 workers and midlevel managers
fled to another nuclear facility 10km away, despite his orders to
be on stand-by. Only he and 69 other employees remained on site
to try to regain control of the plant’s failing reactors, he
testified. All in all Ashida, who died last year of esophageal
cancer, was questioned by the investigative committee on 13
separate occasions for a total of 29 hours and 16 minutes.

Yoshida's questioning revealed that he – while stationed at the
emergency command center – received two reports around 6:15am on
March 15, 2011, both pointing out to signs that the No. 2 reactor
containment vessel was damaged.

However radiation levels were not increasing in the emergency
command center, prompting Yoshida judgment call that the
containment vessel was not damaged. But as a precautionary
measure, at 6:42am Yoshida ordered temporarily evacuation of
workers to comparatively lower radiation locations within the
plant’s territory. In that case when needed they would be able to
return to their posts, if no abnormalities at the nuclear plant
were reported.

Most of the workers, however, by 7am had made it to Fukushima No.
2 nuclear power plant – as far as 10km south of Plant No. 1.
Yoshida told the government panel that workers told drivers of
the buses waiting outside the command center to take them to
Fukushima No. 2 plant. According to the document, Yoshida said
that he “never told the workers to go [to the No. 2
plant].”

“I thought I gave an order to temporarily evacuate to a
location where radiation levels were low near the Fukushima No. 1
plant and await further instructions. After the workers arrived
at the No. 2 plant, I contacted them and asked that the group
managers be the first to return,” he told interviewers.

At their time of the absence of 90 percent of the workforce, it
is believed that a fire occurred at the No. 4 reactor while
radiation levels skyrocketed near the main gate of the No. 1
plant. White steam was also seen spewing out of the No. 2
reactor. Overall, four reactors were severely damaged in the
aftermath of a disaster that struck in March 2011.

If Yoshida's testimony stands, it would challenge Tokyo Electric
Power Company’s (TEPCO) account of the events that claimed that
almost everyone except a small team of workers were evacuated.

TEPCO, the operator of the No. 1 plant, has never disclosed any
information about orders issued by Yoshida for workers to remain
at the plant rather than go to No. 2 facility. The operator now
claims that plant manager’s orders were flexible.

“Evacuating temporarily to the No. 2 plant was not a
violation of regulations because Yoshida’s order left open the
possibility of leaving for the No. 2 plant if there were no
locations at the No. 1 plant, where radiation levels were
low,” a TEPCO official explained.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, TEPCO released a statement saying that it
has begun releasing underground water at No. 1 reactor into the
Pacific Ocean, ITAR-TASS reports. The company says that the water
radiation level will not affect the environment. Earlier TEPCO
said that only water with 1,500 becquerels of radiation or fewer
per liter would be released.